The War Goes On With No Obvious End

As the war goes on, another letter to Congress:

Within a few days of the U.S. and Israel attacking Iran, gasoline jumped to $3.00 a gallon here in Opelika. Now, in the fourth week of this war, gasoline is $3.50, $1 more per gallon than the price before the preemptive and destabilizing attack. Other than raising prices, what has the administration’s war accomplished?

The Strait of Hormuz is blocked; the only oil and cargo transiting are ships allowed by Iran.

The president’s goal of a new regime in Iran? The new leader is the son of the former leader and cut from the same theocratic cloth.

The enriched uranium, which the president called an imminent threat, is still there.

While we have extensively damaged Iran’s military capabilities, the destruction seems to have strengthened the regime’s resolve.

Whatever trust we built through negotiation is gone. The president’s bellicose rhetoric intended to scare Iran into submission is not working.

The Pentagon now asks for $200 billion to fund the war. $200 billion could have reduced the nation’s debt, been invested in critical infrastructure, or restored the health insurance subsidies Congress refused to extend.

Astonishingly, the president is now talking about taking over Cuba.

Those of us who lived through the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 recall the aphorism “if you break it, you own it.” Donald Trump owns this war and its vast economic and humanitarian consequences.

I urge you and your Republican colleagues to exercise Constitutional oversight to end the war and limit President Trump’s imperial ambitions. Don’t be complicit by your support or by hiding in silence.